Don Covert's company built on hard work and help from friends, family

Oct. 8, 2012

Don Covert / DAVE POLCYN/NEWS JOURNAL

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Editor’s note: This is the seventh installment in a series about North Central Ohio Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame inductees from 2003 to present.

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GALION — What does it take to run a business?

Patience, determination and a lot of help from friends and family, according to Covert Manufacturing owner Don Covert, Sr. He has been running the Galion-based machining, pattern and mold shop for 45 years.

“Most anyone can start a company, but getting the money to run it and keep it going is another story,” said Covert, a 2005 North Central State College Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame inductee. “It’s not so much why you get into a business, but how.”

For Covert, his big break was establishing a relationship with Joe Haas, owner of Haas Manufacturing, which became Covert Manufacturing in 1972. When Covert couldn’t purchase the pattern shop upfront, Haas allowed him to lease the building and equipment until the debt was paid.

What’s more, Haas cosigned Covert’s loan so he could complete payroll and start building the company.

“The bank said, ‘If you’re good enough for Joe Haas, you’re good enough for us,’ ” Covert said “It’s very important to have a little help.”

Haas wasn’t the first to help Covert in his quest to become an entrepreneur. Covert credits each of his employers along the way who took a chance in 1956 on a newly married, Mount Gilead high school graduate seeking a way to support his family.

Covert earned 10 years of experience in the pattern-making business before setting out to run his own company, five of which he spent as an apprentice at Quality Pattern, Co.

Later, he worked for International Harvester and American Standard foundries in Louisville, Ky., where he earned the credibility needed to strike out on his own.

“People questioned why I would leave a good job like International Harvester, and I kind of wondered, too, sometimes,” Covert said. “But the risk was worth it, I felt.

“I’ve always wanted to run my own business, since I was a kid.”

Getting started wasn’t easy, though. Covert said many questioned if he could actually survive as a businessman, to which he would always respond, “If I work hard enough.”

“They say after 10 years you’ve got it made as a company, but that’s not true,” Covert said. “You have to fight and work the entire time; you can’t ever let down.”

Covert’s eldest daughter Terri Williams said he applies that same attitude to the business today, and teaches his family to do the same.

“His work ethic was the greatest example for us,” Williams said. “He’s always thinking things will be all right if you work hard and work smart.”

Don Covert was never afraid of manual labor. The first to get to work and the last to leave, he built a reputation for being the type of boss to get his hands dirty, requiring no more from his workers than he did from himself.

“In the beginning, I didn’t have an office,” Covert said. “I worked as much as 60 hours a week with our other two employees.”

Frank Lyon can attest to that. Lyon has been working various jobs for Covert for 39 years.

Lyon said he was just passing through Covert Manufacturing as a pattern maker — waiting on a call from the steel mill —when he met Covert. Then his plans changed.

“They did end up calling me, but I didn’t want to leave,” Lyon said. “Don always treated me fair; I had no reason to move on.

“I consider him a very good friend.”

Even at 75 years old, Covert’s work schedule hasn't changed much. He still is found in the plant on a daily basis.

“I spend 50 percent of my time, at a minimum, in the plant,” Covert said. “I’ve never been out of the shop.”

That said, Covert officially turned over control of the business to his children last year. All four voluntarily joined the company.

Williams and sister Kym Fox are co-presidents of Covert Manufacturing, followed by the youngest sister Donna Morrow as vice-president of accounting and son Don Jr. as vice president of the mold division.

“This is a totally family-owned company,” Covert said. “The children have all been involved in the company for over 24 years, so this is not a new job for them to be managing the company; they’ve had a lot of experience.”

That’s why, when Don Covert does step out of the workshop, the family is confident the business will only continue to grow, especially with the third generation already moving into positions. Thirteen family members work in the company.

“We’ve been very fortunate to work for our mother and father,” Fox said. “The let us participate in a lot of discussion on the direction of the company and that really helped us for now.”

Williams agreed.

“The transition of succession should not be a big event,” Williams said. “It should already be in place, and it is."